2014/11/12 EECCA countries discuss indicators and assessments in view to the next 2016 Environment for Europe Ministerial Conference

Representatives from the statistical and environmental communities from the countries of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) gathered in Geneva for a week of events (3-7 November 2014) contributing to preparing the next ‘Environment for Europe’ Ministerial Conference to take place in June 2016 in Batumi, Georgia. The members of the UNECE Joint Task Force on Environmental Indicators (JTFEI) firstly discussed quality assurance and quality control aspects of data related to indicators on air quality and emissions into the air, together with experts from the CLRTAP Secretariat, the Data and Analysis Program of the UNFCCC, the WHO European Centre for Environment and Health, and the Air and Climate Unit at European Joint Research Centre (JRC). Two days were thereafter dedicated at reviewing progress on the production and sharing of the core set of 8 environmental and deciding ways forward to continue a similar process for the remaining indicators from the UNECE guidelines. The week concluded with the 15th Session of the Working Group on Environmental Monitoring and Assessment (WGEMA), in which countries provided updates on progress in terms of developing a Shared Environmental Information System (SEIS) and conducted a hands-on training on the preparation of the national state of the environment reports (SoER) - with focus on the air chapter.

Further information, and related materials, available on the event websites: